Religion and Politics from a Young Christian in Northern Virginia

A Lot of Republicans May be Leaving the Party this Year

March 1st, 2013

Today Bill Bolling sent an email to supporters discussing his thoughts on running for Governor. He asked them to fill out a survey and tell him if they would support his bid to be an “Independent Republican” This is all as Bill Bolling prepares for his big March 14th announcement, presumably announcing an independent bid.

While I quickly received multiple emails from activists encouraging me to tell Bill Bolling not to run, some are definitely supportive of Bill Bolling. Bolling claims people in the business community are encouraging him to run, more than likely people like Bobbie Kilberg and Gary Shapiro. Blogger and activist Lynn Mitchell also quickly came out in support of Bolling.

Conservatives on the other hand are talking of supporting independents in the wake of the tax fiasco. Many people are saying it may be time to run independents against Republican Delegates who won by 5% or less and voted for the tax hike. The goal is to thin out the caucus and give conservatives a chance at leadership posts.

We have situations developing where local committees could be cleared of a number of moderates as well as conservatives. There is the potential for independent efforts to develop of independents who can’t stand each other. On the one hand is people who feel like Ken Cuccinelli is a loon and has driven them out of the party, on the other hand are those who feel betrayed by the recent tax hike.

Two other thing to watch is how many people are willing to support independent efforts before the state convention, and will the credentials committee remove them as delegates?

Much like 2009 began as a year of turmoil within RPV, so is 2013. Hopefully conservativism does even better this November than it did four years ago.